Titans QB Will Levis is making mistakes coach Brian Callahan already corrected. So ... why?

Will Levis didn't just make a bad decision Sunday. He went out and did the one thing Tennessee Titans coach Brian Callahan expressly told him not to.

"It’s a conversation that frankly we had on the sideline at the end of the third quarter," Callahan told reporters Monday. "I said ‘Listen, they haven’t done anything at all. Our defense is playing lights out. We don’t have to be exceptional right now. We’re still trying to win the game, but limiting the errors is what’s going to win us this game.’"

Clearly Levis didn't take the message to heart . With 7:35 left in the game, Levis tried to shovel a pass out of bounds instead of taking a sack on a 3rd-and-6. Chicago Bears cornerback Tyrique Stevenson plucked Levis' floater out of the air and returned it 43 yards for a touchdown, giving Chicago its first lead and the only lead it needed to steal a 24-17 win out from under the Titans .

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Callahan says he knows Levis was only trying to do the right thing. But the coach says in that situation the right thing to do probably would've been take the sack and punt. The Titans defense didn't allow a touchdown all day, and punter Ryan Stonehouse has a knack for pinning opponents deep. Had Levis ate the ball and let the defense and special teams do their jobs, Callahan feels fairly confident the Titans could've won.

The lack of situational awareness is concerning. But equally concerning is what Callahan describes as "technique reversion." He said with Levis, and among several of his other young players, it was disappointing to see mistakes made in games the coaches thought had already been corrected in practice. Some of Levis' moments of technical reversion included his tendency to drift out of the safety of the pocket into oncoming rushers instead of staying on his mark and his long-discussed tendency to absorb unnecessary hits when scrambling instead of going to the ground.

"I liken it to, the best way to describe it is with everyone that has kids, it’s sometimes they do it exactly how you wanted to and sometimes you tell them 100 times and they still do it that way," Callahan said. "That’s part of our job is to keep coaching that and doing our best to keep improving that part of our game."

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That metaphor doesn't do much to inspire confidence in Levis' ability to grow.

But the next thing Callahan said might.

"We had the same things with Joe Burrow in Cincinnati," Callahan said. "It was very similar. He would hold the ball, he would take unnecessary risks, he would take a lot of hits in his first two years. He learned very quickly that’s not a sustainable way to play football and if you want to be available to our team on game days then you better start making better decisions. It is a process and it does take some time."

Levis and the Titans return to action for their home opener against the New York Jets on Sunday (noon, CBS), another matchup against a team with a hyper-talented defense built around an All Pro cornerback and an active defensive front.

Callahan clearly wants more from his young quarterback than he got in Week 1, and he plans to be intentional about helping make sure that's the case.

"All you can do is keep coaching it," Callahan says. "Every time you go out there and play you hope that it gets better."

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Nick Suss is the Titans beat writer for The Tennessean. Contact Nick at nsuss@gannett.com . Follow Nick on X, the platform formerly called Twitter, @nicksuss.

This article originally appeared on Nashville Tennessean: Titans QB Will Levis is making mistakes coach Brian Callahan already corrected. So ... why?